"As I often do when events occur that breach our university's commitment to values and civility, I feel a necessity to speak out. I'm speaking today of the offensive remarks supporting terrorism made during the question period following a noontime lecture at the flagpole on Thursday.

The past week included several speeches, lectures and discussions providing opposing views on the Middle East conflict, one of the world's most troubling confrontations. Much of what was said was the type of discourse on a difficult issue that is the hallmark of an educational institution committed to an exchange of ideas. Some of these views are very difficult and offensive to listen to. As is the case on all campuses, events sponsored by campus organizations and visitors may feature ideas and opinions that can be starkly different from ours. But as we know, it is nevertheless incumbent upon us to protect the freedom of speech of those who visit our campus to express their views, even when we disagree.

Let me be clear: we condemn the speaker's endorsement of terrorism. Nothing could be more contrary to our fundamental values and our commitment to dialogue and democratic rule, not violence. We are an educational institution that promotes, practices and teaches tolerance; these remarks supporting terrorism were deplorable.

As a public university our free speech venue is open to a broad range of views, and we're a stronger campus for doing that. But we will never allow ourselves to be defined by the outside views of others. They may speak here, but they don't speak for us."

Fousesquawk comment: Recognizing the right of free speech, this is the type of comment that many, including myself, have been requesting from the university for some time in response to the myriad cases of hateful speech that have occurred on the UCI campus for years.

While I welcome the statement, I wish Chancellor Drake had identified the speaker by name (Amir Abdel Malik Ali), as well as the organization that brought the speaker to campus (the Muslim Student Union) and any other student groups or university entities that may have co-sponsored the event. I say this especially in light of not only the statement by a Muslim Student Association member to David Horowitz at UC San Diego this past week, but the two investigations into the actions of the UCI MSU in the George Galloway fund raiser on May 21, 2009 and the February 8 disruption of the speech by the Israeli ambassador on February 8th.

2 comments:

Any word on the investigation that money was raised for HAMAS at a MSU event or has any disciplined down to the disruptive students who repeatedly interrupted the speech by the Israeli Ambassador to the US while he gave a speech at UC Irvine?

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Roger Gardner of Radarsite (1936-2009)

About Me

Born 1945 in Los Angeles. Worked from 1998-2016 as adjunct teacher at University of California at Irvine Ext. teaching English as a second language.
Served three years in US Army Military Police at Erlangen, Germany 1966-68.
1970-1973- Criminal Investigator with US Customs
1973-1995 Criminal investigator with Drug Enforcement Administration. Stationed in Los Angeles, Bangkok, Milan, Italy, Pittsburgh and Office of Training, FBI Academy, Quantico, Va. until retirement.
Author of Erlangen-An American's History of a German Town-University Press of America 2005,
The Story of Papiamentu- A Study in Slavery and Language, University Press of America, 2002, and
The Languages of the Former Soviet Republics-Their History and Development, University Press of America, 2000.